Because if we're going to try and stop the misuse of our favorite comics and their protagonists by the companies that write and publish them, we've got to see what both the printed and online comics news is doing wrong. This blog focuses on both the good and the bad, the newspaper media and the online websites. Unabashedly. Unapologetically. Scanning the media for what's being done right and what's being done wrong.

Ta-Nehisi Coates is remaining with Marvel

The author Ta-Nehisi Coates has confirmed that he is writing a comic book about X-Men character Storm with Marvel Comics illustrator Jen Bartel.

In Coates’ Black Panther comic book series, the title character, T’Challa, was married for a while to Storm. Coates met Bartel for the first time at the New York Comic Con this month. Bartel, known among other things for her work on the Jem and the Holograms comic, had illustrations of Storm. Coates bought one and posted it on his Twitter feed, mentioning only that they “got to talk about collaborating.”

The artist on the series from IDW where where the rock singer named Stormer was turned into an overweight lesbian? Yeah, that should make a great pairing alright. If sales receipts for Coates' BP work have been floundering of late (not that anything sells spectacularly in realist terms today, as I try to keep in mind), I'm not sure there's much chance they'll have better luck with Ororo Munroe. I've noticed in the promo artwork that it shows Storm with side shavings, not unlike what turned up in the Jem comic adaptation, and I'm betting they'll use the time in 1986 when Claremont and company had her drawn with a mohawk as justification for this latest monstrosity. Seeing what Coates and Bartel could have in store visually only makes the mohawk style from the late 80s look even more tasteless in hindsight.

And there's the next strong hint why all concerned should continue to avoid Marvel's output, as it becomes clear they're not going to hire anybody who's willing to refrain from heavy politics at the expense of entertainment.

Yesterday's post condemned Marvel because it cancelled a project that a sponsor financed for the express purpose of conveying a heavy handed political message, treating the decision as a form of cowardice. Today you are condemning them because a writer is conveying a political message. This seems like a knee-jerk reaction, just being against whatever leftists and moderate conservatives have to say without really thinking about the issues. Don't you see the contradiction between today's post and yesterday's?

And don't you see the contradiction between topics involving artistic consumerism and poor business decisions? Next thing you know, whoever the left-wing apologist troll is who wrote the above will say it's a knee-jerk reaction to advise avoiding books written by Nick Spencer and Dan Slott, no matter how bad their scriptwriting already is. Methinks somebody doesn't have to read this blog if he really feels the way he does.

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About me

I'm Avi Green

From Jerusalem, Israel

I was born in Pennsylvania in 1974, and moved to Israel in 1983. I also enjoyed reading a lot of comics when I was young, the first being Fantastic Four. I maintain a strong belief in the public's right to knowledge and accuracy in facts. I like to think of myself as a conservative-style version of Clark Kent. I don't expect to be perfect at the job, but I do my best.